


The years inbetween

by booksparks05



Series: The Narnia Tales [2]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, Historical References, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, M/M, Multi, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2020-07-30 06:40:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20092936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksparks05/pseuds/booksparks05
Summary: Peter doesn't sleep anymore.Susan doesn't eat.Edmund is too quiet.Lucy laughs too loud.Melody cries herself to sleep.Hamilton can't look in mirrors.Lewis's hands shake when he goes outside.Katherine can't stop crying.It takes time to heal, but eventually, they will get there.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any of the series, characters or franchise(s) that are used, talked about or implied to exist in this series!
> 
> The story is going to be told by the characters and what they experience during the healing process. There will probably be very few speaking parts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A small idea that formed thanks to a post on tumblr by aslansblessings. Please go check them out, they are fantastic!

Once, not too long ago, the Ayers family and the Pevensie siblings fell back through the wardrobe after a lifetime in a world they could no longer reach.

While the eight left many things there, they had all kept small tokens of their rule. 

Peter found his wedding and engagement bands and a charm he had been planning to give to his daughter Jaidyn. The charm was a little oak leave with a star shaped aquamarine pressed into it. He attached it to a chain and never took it off.

Susanna found an arrowhead and a silver hair clip. The hair clip was part of a gift from her protector, Holly, and the arrowhead had fallen from its arrow and she had been meaning to take it out of her pocket since that morning.

Edmund had a leather bound notebook with ideas for laws or prompts for Kathy and scribbles from Lucy when he left it out in the open. It was usually locked, for the sake of privacy, but somewhere on the ride the lock had been broken and he had never been gladder for such a small inconvenience.

Lucy had a carved figurine and a flute. The figurine acted as her connection to Aslan in both Narnia and our world and the flute was a gift from Mr. Tumnus on the Autumn Equinox two and a half years before, when he had begun teaching her.

Melody had her wedding and engagement bands and the lockets of her two daughters and her son. The lockets were something she was planning to give them when they got back to Cair but that wouldn’t happen now so she wore them to remind herself, both of what she lost and what she could gain one day.

Hamilton had a flower from Holly and a pebble from a river they had past that morning.

Lewis had a pen and a bottle of ink, the reason behind them he couldn’t quite recall and not even Hamilton could divine.

Katherine came back with some ripped out pages from her notebooks. The lines on them had never been more precious to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will continue this series, I promise! Please comment!


	2. End of Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's inner monologue throughout his healing process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it's short, and definitely not as indepth as the rest will be, the work will improve, I promise.

###  **End of Days**

###  **Peter**

According to the myths I had read years ago, the end of days was supposed to be loud. 

The Lion was supposed to appear and lead the last King and Queen of Narnia to His land, all of the creatures and talking animals following behind them.

The sun would set for the last time, coloured like blood and dripping into the land, flooding it, wiping the board clean for another story to begin.

It wasn’t meant to start with pulling yourself out of a nightmare. It wasn’t meant to include throwing you guts up every night because there was so much blood and guilt and hatred. The end of days was meant to be loud, obvious, visible to all. It wasn’t supposed to be the quiet gasps at midnight, holding Melody close as she falls apart every night, silent looks over a dinner table when Susan didn’t show up for the fourth night in a row.

But that’s what this was. This crushing weight of guilt that made sleep hellish for me; that was the end of my days.

But the light at the end of the tunnel started growing brighter, and suddenly the End of Days wasn’t so bad.

There were still nights where I was dragged out of sleep by guilt and hatred, but those became less common, as did the dinners that Susan wasn’t there for.

I knew then, we were going to be okay, in time.


	3. Unwritten and Unspoken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melody reflects on the toll that school took on all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, two chapters in as many days! This is fantastic!
> 
> Again, I apologise for the length of this, fingers crossed I can get the word count to grow.

###  **Unspoken and Unwritten**

###  **Melody**

School was a struggle. 

It wasn’t in the academic parts, those were easy. We knew those things and could recite them with our eyes closed.

No, the struggle was in the people and the interactions. In the unwritten rules.

There’s only a certain amount of times you can whisper in your brothers’ ears before stories start. 

You can only hold your friends to remind them (and you) that this is real, this is reality, a few times before you are rejected.

You can’t grab the hand of the man you married unless you want to go through an inquisition (not that the others around you see anything but a teenager and preteen clasping at dreams).

You have to socialize, or you will be beaten and have to learn to fight back.

If you cry, you are weak.

These are the rules that cause Peter to start fighting. These are the reasons that I come home and insist on practicing whatever I can with Hamilton. These are the cause of Edmund, Lewis and Hamilton starting to smoke. These are the rules that were the driving force behind Susanna becoming a socialite and stop coming to the family meetings that we all put ourselves through. These rules are the cause of Katherine and Lucille almost losing the wonder they had in life.

These are the rules that tore my family apart. But our family is the reason we were put back together.

The reason I dragged Peter away from fights was because he needed to be safe so he could spend time with Edmund that afternoon, more than he needed to beat Thomas Deryk, or Hyden Kiberal, or whoever else, into the ground for name calling.

The reason I pulled Susanna away from her cliquey friendship circles was because she needed to be on good terms with her family, in case (Aslan forbid) her mother ever took her and her siblings back.

The reason behind me throwing fits every time I smelled smoke on the breaths of Hamilton, Edmund or Lewis was because they needed to be  _ alive _ , without lung cancer, heart disease or vision problems, especially if they were ever going to live to threaten Lucy and Kitty’s possible suitors the way they used to.

The reason I would take Lucy and Kitty out, into the forest, or the meadows or into the little town whenever I could was so that they could have time, and so that I could have time, time to sort everything out in our heads.

Those afternoons spent out were the first time I saw Kitty smile, for real, since we were dumped in that Aslan forsaken spare room. Those afternoons were the first time Lucy outright cried, only to start laughing right along with Kitty afterwards. Those afternoons were the reason I started falling asleep properly at night, the promise of seeing whatever family I had left behind again someday soothing me, just a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews are appreciated!


	4. That's the reason why

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Susan sheds a little light on how her mind is holding up, and the direction her life will be going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know, I thought that this might be longer too, but oh well, the world is a disappointing place and we have to deal with it.

###  **That’s the reason why**

###  **Susanna**

Narnia was cruel, in my mind. Perhaps not while we were there but, in the way we left, the suddenness of it. I grew to hate the very essence of it, for a time.

Then I remembered that that world was why I had Melody. It was what gave me such faith in Him and in my family. It was the reason that I still held my family in my heart.

And perhaps Narnia was the reason my world shattered when we got a letter saying that Mum would be taking us back in.

I knew Narnia was the reason that Peter and I would stay up at night and wait for Mum to fall asleep before doing so ourselves. It was the reason I squealed like a child on Christmas when I opened the door to find Melody, Lewis, Hamiton and Katherine on our doorstep, citing the holidays and wanting to see us as their reasons for being there.

Narnia was the reason why I kissed a fifteen year old girl under the mistletoe, why I had the courage to ask her to dinner the next night.

Narnia was the reason why my life when the way it did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, send in a comment? I get very sad when my inbox is empty for long periods of time.


	5. Summer in the 'States

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Ayers triples head back to camp while Kitty gets to spend three friggin months working up a killer beach tan on the Italian coast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to apologize to any and all Americans reading this, my geography skills are not fantastic, and so my knowledge of American states and cities... leaves much to be desired. I tried, I promise.

###  **Summer in the states**

###  **Hamilton**

Going back to camp that summer felt like we were coming home. To our siblings it had only been a year, but to us, it had been almost fifteen years.

It was almost unsurprising when Lewis was given a quest and he dragged us along with him. 

We spent the next few weeks tracking down our Dad’s cattle, with only a little divine intervention from Artemis and, as a ‘favour’ to Hecate, having to side track on our way back to camp for a day to deal with a group of empousai causing problems... I can't even remember where, maybe somewhere in New Jersey? Possibly somewhere in Connecticut? I don't even know, Lewis is the geography geek, ask him. 

All in all, nobody died and it was pretty successful.

Later that summer we were released early and spent about a month with our mother’s parents in northern Italy, where Kitty had already developed a very nice beach tan. After a week spent mostly at the beach, Melody dragged us up to the mountain ranges for two weeks for hiking purposes. Her explanation? ‘Because reasons’. 

But I knew why.

She had been watching Lewis, and probably me as well. Lewis hated being outside and I hated my reflection.

By the end of the impromptu hiking trip, Lewis had started getting up to see the sunrise, without Melody’s help.

We were away from civilisation for two weeks before we caved and went back to the city, and spent the last week at the beach.

Half a day after the trip I went to the barber’s and I didn’t flinch once when the stylist asked me to look in the mirror.

I loved the entire summer, even if I missed the contact with the Pevensies. We, of course, showed up on their doorstep two weeks before going back to Professor Kirke’s house, and we didn’t go anywhere but Finchley for the next two weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so apart from the fact that Hamilton sounds like I do after three days without sleep (I have actually attempted that, it isn't fun and thank god it was almost the summer holidays) I consider this chapter a moderate success.
> 
> Let me know what you think of it, please, even if the comment anonymous.


	6. Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edmund starts his healing and Lucy is still awesome. Also, hints at Peter and Melody being... them. Yeah, have fun with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lost time no see... yeah, please don't kill me, I hit a bump in the road with the Prince Caspian story and let's just say, there will possibly be a chapter missing from that for a while.  
That and I reconnected with one of my favourite animes so you all might be getting a taste of my crazy ass wonderings into world history, speaking of, Hamilton the musical, anyone?
> 
> Any whosies, I better stop and actually start on proof reading this chapter, cause God knows my girlfriend refuses to help me with that. And it's a weekend so I don't have the ability to speak with her.
> 
> Okay, my love life aside, ON WITH THE STORY!!  
I don't own Narnia, PJO, or any other franchise that appears.

###  **Words**

###  **Edmund**

There were words in the air that were left untouched except in the darkest corners of our minds. The words danced around us like some kind of demented dance partner. 

They pressed down and made Susan sick every time she ate, made Kitty’s tears run when she looked at parts of the house, made Hamilton rush out of the bathrooms in the morning, they kept Lewis hostage inside and stopped Peter from sleeping.

I felt the words circling and swooping in on me, prompting me to say something into the deafening silence that had taken over my family when it came to the years we had lived as kings, queens and protectors.

I said nothing, only moving to the back of the room and pulling out a packet of cigarettes and the lighter from my pocket. When Hamilton and Lewis moved over and asked if they could grab one as well, my foggy mind only held out the packet for them to take one and lit it for them.

The shouting directed at us that night was well deserved. So was the shouting every time it happened, even if we didn’t stop for the next two months, when I reached into my pocket and found a note instead of my cigarettes and lighter.

** _I was sick of Melody shouting herself hoarse every night, sorry boys!! _ **

** _xox_ **

** _Queen Lucy the Valiant_ **

Lucy didn’t question the bear hug she received that night, nor every night afterwards that I found a note instead of the other two objects that I did my utmost to avoid.

I started speaking soon after, writing notes and sticking them in the pockets of my siblings. Little thoughts, promises, ideas for them.

‘I still want to fight for justice, and I will need you there when I do’, left on Hamilton’s desk after I turned down his request for a smoke.

‘ We can go to the lake that we found when you get back home ’, was snuck into Lucy’s pocket the night after finding one of her notes for me.

‘ You could just dump them at Melody’s feet, tell her what they did and watch in awe as you wife beats the shit out of them ’, taped to Peter’s mathematics book after Melody has to drag him away from another fight.

These were the way that I channeled the words, even if bad days haunted me.

The bad days got more frequent when Mum took us back, but they were still getting better. We still spent time together, and Lucy and I wrote to our friends continuously, receiving replies even in the summer months when they were at their camp until they went silent for a few weeks, before they got back to us and explained that they had had a quest.

I was as thrilled as Susan had been when they showed up on our doorstep, with stories of monsters and mountains. I had been the one to keep the boys out of Peter and Melody’s hair whenever they had disappeared and then reappeared considerably more ruffled, with slightly swollen lips and red marks trailing their necks.

I laughed at the glare sent in my direction, and Lucy’s when we glanced at each other, already planning how we were going to tease him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very sorry sorry for the starting note, it was the product of this being too long in production.
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope to God I haven't scared any of you for life.


End file.
